Note by L. M. Sacasas on Substack

Ici, il faut prendre le mot « divertissement » dans ses deux acceptions : ce qui nous procure amusement et plaisir, ce qui nous distrait de nos problèmes les plus importants, dont celui du sens de nos vies.

Life would be less colourful without such things, assembled by man to stimulate or calm the mind. But they are the very opposite of what we truly need at our core: mechanisms to help us engage with our deep stories. Without these structures, we merely swing between Schopenhauer’s poles of pain and boredom. Xanax without therapy, or PlayStation with

In today’s dopamine-rich ecosystem, we’ve all become primed for immediate gratification. We want to buy something, and the next day it shows up on our doorstep. We want to know something, and the next second the answer appears on our screen. Are we losing the knack of puzzling things out, or being frustrated while we search for the answer, or havin